Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Sporting Shooter

WE don’t often have a lion hunting story to publish but it will only become even more rare as South Africa implements its ban on the commercial breeding of lions, and therefore the hunting of them. The timetable for the ban is not fully established but it won’t be long before there will be no such lions to hunt. One major reason for the ban is to stop what’s derisively called “canned” hunting — hunting farmed lions in fenced enclosures. At its worst, it probably deserves the derision; at its best, it is arguably a sustainable and ethical way of managing a lion population. Better minds than mine have argued for and against for years and I don’t intend to explore the issue now. That sort of hunting is just…

GUNWERKS, based Wyoming, USA, specialises in long-range hunting and precision rifles. The ClymR is Gunwerks’ first bolt-action and it’s a good one — easily one of the most accurate factory rifles that we’ve tested for some time. Gunwerks did all the design work, engineering and manufacturing for the ClymR in-house to avoid being reliant upon outside elements. The ClymR illustrates just how much performance can be packed into a modern bolt-action rifle. It is a semi-custom sporting rifle built for mountain hunting and available as a system with multiple options. At 2.72kg (6lb even), it is a definite lightweight. With high-tech carbon-fibres reinforcing both its barrel and stock, this high-country specialist has been designed to outperform most other rifles in its weight class. Acquiring a handily light rifle is easy.…

NICK Harvey has produced a thorough and very detailed book covering every conceivable aspect of hunting deer in Australia. It is a 240-page volume that includes 16 pages of illustrations and photos and it discusses the gamut of topics from individual deer species through to correctly sighting in your deer rifle. I learned plenty of new things reading the book. I doubt anyone, no matter how experienced, could avoid stumbling across new information and ideas between the covers of this work. It reflects Nick’s decades of deer hunting as well as his research on the subject. The first seven chapters cover the deer species living in Australia. And yes, you did read right: seven of them. Nick covers the little-known barasingha, a species that was released in Victoria in the…

RUSA AREN’T the deer most people find themselves waiting to hunt to secure a trophy and to finalise their grand slam of taking all six Australian deer species. In my case, though, they have beaten me time and time again. GOOD friends have given me opportunities but the stars never aligned. One instance was when I had a friend call up to tell me he had a massive stag on his property. I raced four hours to his place the next morning to find the stag but it had cast his antlers in between our phone call and me arriving. Other friends had offered opportunities along the way but it hadn’t worked out. There was also a part of me that really wanted to complete this on my own terms,…

Weatherby Model 307 Range XP The Range XP is built on Weatherby’s newest bolt action rifle platform, the Model 307. Meant to complement the historic Mark V and Vanguard line-ups, the Model 307 action is a two-lug, cylindrical action compatible with many aftermarket accessories. It is designed to accommodate the vast offerings of stocks, triggers, rails, mounts and magazines that exist in today’s marketplace. The Range XP is a shooter-friendly platform that can dominate the shooting range or the mountain range. Through years of innovation and testing, the Model 307 action features a bolt that was designed to have a tool-less disassembly, allowing hunters and shooters to easily field strip it if needed. The bolt is equipped with an M16 style extractor for positive extraction and reliable ejection. The Range…

Letters containing questions for answering by Nick Harvey must be accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope. Mail your letters to: The Technical Editor, 3 Reef Street, Hill End, NSW 2850. LETTER OF THE MONTH Loading the 6.5x68mm RWS Q Recently, I acquired an unusual Mauser which doesn’t look anything like the Model 1898. It has the markings “Mauser 2000” and the calibre “6.5x68mm”. My uncle had owned this rifle for 30 or 40 years before he gave it to me. It came with a Simplex die set and 30 once-fired cases and 70 that are unfired. I seem to remember that you owned a Mauser 66 in this calibre and reloaded the ammunition and hunted with it. Could you suggest a primer, suitable powder and a couple of moderate loads…

WHEN you carry a Mauser M98 Magnum on a hunt, it is impossible to ignore the history, craftsmanship, quality and beauty of the rifle. They become part of the hunt. The rifle is so heavily imbued with these characteristics that your mind can morph it from hunting equipment into hunting partner. Shooting the Mauser to take game is as much a prize as the game itself. Much of the appeal is the fact that the M98 is the original. The Mauser Model 1898 is the grandfather of modern bolt-action rifles. That statement is a simplification of the whole evolution of firearms but true enough. The current M98 is a subtle evolution of the original, built by Mauser in Germany to a design that’s close enough to the first that no…

BACK in the April issue I was reflecting on the life of deer, and a single buck in particular. If you spend enough time in the bush and pay attention through various means, it’s highly likely you’ll start to recognise individuals. Animals have a way of being predictable and unpredictable at the same time and the more I think I’ve figured them out, the more I realise I need to learn. We all know that the fallow rut is its own thing when it comes to buck behaviour. You only have a window of several weeks to keep tabs on a buck before he disappears again and lives out the rest of his year in relative solitude until he drops his antlers, mobs up with his buddies and starts growing…

WE were hunting out west of Bourke, NSW, in June when I shot this monster boar — a true razorback. I was using my Weatherby Mark V in 7mm Weatherby Magnum, which is loaded with 120gn OEP projectiles. Since buying it a few years ago, it has become my main pig gun. When we spotted the boar he was a fair distance away and already making his getaway so there wasn’t any time to line up a careful shot. Aiming offhand, I gave him a lead and touched the shot off. He went down! We were absolutely awe inspired when we got to him as he was about twice as big as we first thought. He was so big two strong men couldn’t lift him. We had to drag him…

ONE OF MY earliest memories was when I was five years old. My father was loading his two German shorthair pointers into the front boot of his VW beetle to go hunting. This was in the former Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists, but I’m sure the hunting traditions are still in place today. Over the years, I’ve heard many stories about how game is managed there and how hunting is regulated through licensing and club memberships. ONE story that has stuck with me is about a red deer that my father shot and the process of distributing the meat to all the hunters in the field that day. Once the deer was butchered into the corresponding number of portions, the meat would be placed on a table with…

OF all the belted magnum dangerous-game cartridges I’ve used on game ranging in size from red stag to buffaloes, the .338 Winchester Magnum is undoubtably the most useful and versatile of them all. I’m not alone in my liking for the .338 either; this is a view that was shared by such notable hunters as Colonel Charles Askins, Finn Aagard, Jim Carmichel and Bob Hagel. My good friend Charlie Askins was the first gun writer to field test the .338 prior to its introduction in 1958. He gave it a thorough workout in Africa, scoring many one-shot kills on a variety of game ranging in size from the 20kg Thompson’s gazelle to the 700kg eland. “The .338 fills a slot between the .30 magnums and the renowned .375 H&H” The…

OLD Pop and I finally found a day that suited us both to head out to our favourite deer block in search of a rusa stag. I met him and his GSP Bonnie at the gate. The wind was already blowing in every direction. Grabbing our guns, shooting sticks and Bonnie, we made our way up the creek, glancing into the thick ferns below. Slowly we made our way to a well-used crossing, littered with kangaroo, fox and deer prints. I climbed up the muddy bank with ease, turning back just in time to see Bonnie nearly send Old Pop into the creek. Deer had been there. The whirlwind of smells sent Bonnie into overdrive. Following a game trail we made our way up and out of the gully, then…

I WAS waiting in the dark pre-dawn with the night chill seeping into my body. Three years I’d been preparing for this, the second of my Big Five hunts. Hard to imagine it was finally happening. Suddenly a bukkie — a hunting car of the ute persuasion — swung into the driveway of my Jo’burg hotel and things happened quickly. MY professional hunter, or PH, Jaco, was out from the driver’s side and pressing the flesh enthusiastically. It was evident we would be mates for the duration. He was young at 35-ish with all the enthusiasm in the world. We talked lions and hunting and lions and rifles and lions and conservation for the five-hour drive out to the concession on the edge of the Kalahari desert. There are two…

AS a hunter I consider a high-quality binocular to be second in importance only to my rifle. I can’t imagine hunting any kind of big game animal without it. It’s even better if you have a binocular that will measure the range for you. Combining binocular with rangefinder saves time by instantly ranging a game animal seconds after you spot it. One of the latest rangefinding binoculars is the Delta 9x45mm Titanium HD-RF. This is the first Delta optic I have reviewed and it’s surprisingly good. The Delta Optics Technologies company, founded in 2002, is based in Singapore. I believe this top-of-the-range Delta optic was designed in Poland and made in Japan, a country whose quality hunting optics rival the best European brands at considerably lower cost. The Delta binocular…

YOU may have heard that we recently uncovered a plan by factions within the Queensland Labor Party to secretly add further restrictions to shooters in the state. The plans, which were leaked to us via government employees involved in what was happening, were apparently being developed in an effort to shore up sliding poll numbers for the ALP, who are aware the Palaszczuk Government is struggling in the lead-up to the 2024 state election. It’s not a surprise that one of the top options on the list to do something about it was “punish law-abiding firearms users”. We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again. We know the plans were still in a preliminary stage. No task groups had been formed, no committees had it on their agenda. However,…

THE Model 70 story begins with Winchester’s first entry into the modern, high-power bolt-action field, the Model 54, which was manufactured from 1925 through 1936. It was a good, strong rifle that gained a lot of followers. The Big Red W had served its apprenticeship manufacturing Pattern 14 and Model 1917 Enfield rifles for British and American troops during World War 1. The Model 54 included features of the 1903 Springfield which had, in turn, been copied from the Mauser Model 98 and cost the American government millions for patent infringements. Features included a coned breech, dual-opposed locking lugs, a broad non-rotating claw extractor and one-piece firing pin. The receivers were milled from a solid piece of forged nickel steel and the bolt was a one-piece forging with integral handle.…

WHEN THE mid-year holidays come I’m always excited about a winter safari with my good mate Paul Ball of Bally’s Safaris. This year marks our ninth annual catch-up out at one of our favourite properties out at Meandarra, Queensland. BOTH Phoenix and I were very excited to be heading out once again. While everyone is struggling with the temperatures, we knew that early each morning we would be out in zero-type temperatures scouting for pigs that might be rooting around on the 20,000-acre property we call our second home. The six and a half hour roadtrip from Gladstone is always spectacular and the excitement builds as thoughts wander off about the adventures we might have on safari and knowing that we are helping local landowners rid their lands of feral…

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WIN a GARMIN eTrex 22x EVERY MONTH! ENTRIES: Please email your high resolution .jpg or .png pig hunting image as an attachment to the email addressed to mickmatheson@yaffa.com.au – all images must be at least 1MB in size. For entry to be valid the following contact details must be included: First name, surname, full mail address, contact phone number and email address. A short explanatory sentence with the email is also needed. Garmin’s outdoor range features unparalleled innovation in hiking, camping and hunting tech in handheld or wearable configurations. Options span from navigation, communication, safety and tracking devices. Garmin also produces a range of bow sights with built-in rangefinder enabling better shot placement. A Garmin eTrex 22x GPS Navigator will be sent to the best entry every month, thanks to the…